i haven't used AA or any recovery groups other than here on SR. I didn't rule it out and I still don't, if I feel I will need it. I feel as you do, I have confidence in me, but ive seen people say that on here, and then relapse when a situation arose and they had no plan in place to deal with it, and so hit the booze again.
As you say everyone is different heavencanwait, maybe some can give up without a plan, if that's possible I think that's great, whatever works for you is fantastic. Personally I couldn't, and I had lurked on here for a long time before joining and seemed to find the people with the plans in place had the most success long term. So I guess I figured it was my best chance without setting myself up to fail at, but I also realise the same as you, one day you wake up and you just know that enough is enough. I'm sure glad I realised that after 2 years of out of control drinking and it didn't take longer!